Abducted and murdered
I received a bulk text message from Kubatana Wednesday morning to say Mrs. Chirota’s funeral was that day at 1400.
Her husband was elected to Harare City Council. The Councillors met on a Monday, on their own, because the man who claims to be the Local Government Minister will not let them be sworn in. So they went ahead and elected Mr. Chirota to be mayor of Harare. That night his house was burnt down, and wife and 4-year-old child abducted. Mrs Chirota’s body was found on Thursday.
Even if the dictatorship/regime wail long and hard that ‘they are not the ones’ who do the killings, the simple fact that the wife of the Mayor of Zimbabwe’s Capital city can be abducted and murdered, and no one has been arrested for it, shows that there is no law and order in this country. Any government’s job is to provide security for it’s citizens. Therefore, one must conclude, that they are not a government.
However, back to the funeral. I went by bike. Not terribly respectful but the constraints of the day do not allow us to do what is the best. On a cold and gloomy day Warren Hills Cemetry was full of people. Mrs. Chirota was laid to rest in front of well over a hundred mourners. The right words were said, some women sang a medley of songs, and all the right stuff done. That was good. However, it does not detract from the fact that the whole event was BAD. It should not have been happening. The event that led up to it was criminal.
I heard a rumour that Mrs. Chirota comes from a Zanu family. And the family tried to keep the whole thing low key, friends only. So it would seem that the wrong person was killed? It was also rather incongruous (to me) that some of the women in the choir had R G Mugabe head scarves on. Again, seems like the wrong person was killed. Is the killing that indiscriminate? Or is it that I do not have the ‘correct’ story?
I ended up having some discussions with my elected Councillor. We really need to get things done, even if just to remember her well. Give the people a choice. Do they want to go with the killers, or go with the people trying to get the rubbish taken away? While the cost of taking the rubbish out is high
(potential death), we must work along these lines. Elections are only one way to get ‘authority’. They certainly will not work if there is only one person to vote for. The other way (major way) of establishing your authority as a leader, is by leading. So even if you are the lead rubbish removal authority, you are the leader. The one who does not get the rubbish out is a failed leader.